In 2005 a Wittenberg resident named Lois Smith came home from Florida with an idea she had seen working in a small town there: paint the walls. Two decades later the Walls of Wittenberg project has put more than 30 murals on the village's buildings, and they give travelers on Highway 29 a good reason to take the exit.
This is how to see them: where the best-documented walls are, what they show, when the gallery is open, and where to eat between them. The murals are outdoors and free, so any day works. The gallery and the art space keep weekend hours.
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What the Walls of Wittenberg are
The Walls of Wittenberg, usually shortened to WOW, is a volunteer non-profit that commissions murals for the outside walls of downtown businesses, schools and public buildings. It raises the money through private donations and fundraising events, then chooses designs from Wisconsin artists who apply to paint them.
The count has grown every few years. A 2011 newspaper story counted more than 17 buildings with murals, a later one counted 23 paintings, and in 2023 WOW's vice president, Elaine Diffor, put the total at over 30.
Murals on the places you will stop anyway
Three of the best-known murals are on businesses you are likely to visit for food or a drink, which makes them the easiest place to start.
A block away on S Webb St, the wall of Xena's Village Inn holds a 2007 mural by Milwaukee artist Reynaldo Hernandez. It shows the people who worked at the tavern and drank there over the years.
On the side of Lisa's Sweet Shoppe Bakery on Howard St, a mural honors Lisa's parents and Gus & Ann's Restaurant, which they ran at highways 29 and 45 for more than 30 years.
The history walls
Several murals tell Wittenberg's own story, and many are matched to the building they are on. That pairing is part of the fun of the walk.
The Nuts and Bolts of It, by Andy Goretski, shows Wittenberg as it looked around 1910. The post office wears a Warhol-style set of oversized postage stamps, and the old hardware store has saws and hammers across its wall.
Another mural remembers the Chicago and North Western passenger and freight trains that used to stop in the village. That railroad is the reason Wittenberg exists in its current form: the station was called Carbonero until the Rev. E.J. Homme persuaded the railroad to rename it. Today the old rail bed through town is part of the Wiouwash State Trail, which follows Howard St past the bowling alley.
Other walls honor the village's firefighters and EMTs, local families and their pets, and a game of pool. The Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District has contributed design work over the years.
The big ones
Two of the biggest murals are among the newer ones, and both are worth seeking out on purpose.
The 2013 Green Bay Packers mural is an enormous tribute to the team and its fans. In 2018 WOW added a pastoral scene of the farm country around Wittenberg and a larger-than-life black bear with her two cubs. Two more murals went up in 2017.
Ask at the gallery for directions to these, since recent walls may not appear on older printed maps.
Who paints the murals
The murals are painted by working artists, chosen by WOW after a search of Wisconsin artists interested in the job, with a few out-of-state names along the way. That is why the walls look so different from each other: each one carries its painter's style rather than a house look.
The names on the walls include Milwaukee's Reynaldo Hernandez, who painted the Village Inn wall, Andy Goretski, who painted the 1910 street scene, and Adam Turman and Brian Geihl, who came over from the Twin Cities for the outdoors mural at the bowling alley. When Turman and Geihl were working, they played everything from Johnny Cash to punk out of a boombox in the lot beside the wall.
WOW pays for each wall through donations and its own fundraisers, so new murals arrive when the money does. That explains the uneven rhythm, with two new walls in 2017 and two more in 2018.
WOWSPACE and the Art Park
WOWSPACE is a restored downtown building that used to be the village drugstore, donated to the group as its headquarters and now used for art shows, small concerts and community events. Events there have included a quilt show and murder mystery dinner theater nights with catered food.
Nearby, the Art Park holds nine sculptures by area artists set into a landscaped lot. It is a short stop, and it rounds out the walk well if you have kids who have had enough of looking up at walls.
The Events tab lists what is on at WOWSPACE, and the volunteers at the gallery on Vinal St know what is coming up.
How to see the murals
Park downtown on Vinal St near the gallery and walk. The walls described here sit on Vinal, Webb and Howard streets, within a few blocks of each other. Allow an hour if you want to stop and read each one.
Go on a Saturday or Sunday between 11am and 3pm if you want the gallery open. Morning light is best for photos on the east-facing walls and late afternoon for the west-facing ones.
During Wittenberg Community Days in June, WOW runs guided mural tours and an emerging talents show. That weekend you can hear the stories from the people who commissioned the walls, and the rest of Community Days weekend in Wittenberg is going on around you.
Where to eat between walls
Wittenberg Family Restaurant on N Genesee St is the natural lunch stop, open from 7am to 3pm most days and later on Friday. It sits at the north end of the mural blocks, so you can eat before or after the loop.
The rhubarb sundae at Britt's on E Grand Ave is the reward at the end of the loop, served from 11am Wednesday to Sunday. Every other option, with open days, is in the full list of Wittenberg restaurants.
Frequently asked questions
Published September 21, 2026
